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I never planned on having kids so, like many non-parent adults, I had views on parenting that I was certain would work best. Those views were very traditional, strict parenting: spanking, time-outs, yelling, like hell the kid would sleep in my bed, etc.

Then I became a mom. A mom who suffered from postpartum anxiety and OCD (my post about PPA/PPOCD)) and man, did my views change. In helping heal my PPA I found that taking a gentle approach to my life truly helped me; I started meditating, I stopped stressing about things I couldn’t control, I would practice my breathing and control my emotions before I responded to a situation and I found that it worked! While I still have general anxiety, I’ve learned to regulate it without medication and, for somebody who has been struggling with it for almost 20 years, that’s a big accomplishment.

My daughter was very attached in her infancy; I had to babywear if I didn’t want to listen to her scream because if she wasn’t near me then she was just miserable! I found that I loved babywearing, though, so it turned out to be a win for both of us. As she got older and more mobile it became harder to wear her while trying to do things around the apartment so she’d just follow me and scream, out of frustration I’d yell at her to leave me along for five minutes, if she touched things she wasn’t supposed to I’d smack her hand. Every time I did something like this the look on her face would break my heart but it’s the only thing I ever knew in regards to “discipline” and teaching. She was a very high-needs baby, but also very sensitive, and that has carried on with her now that she’s a preschooler.

One day we were getting in the car at the mall after a play group and after telling her to wait by the car while I loaded in the little boy I watched my daughter darted into the road and a car had to swerve to miss her! She thought it was funny and giggled as she ran, but out of complete fear I raised my hand and I spanked her butt. I hit my child. I was angry and so scared, more scared than I had ever been in my life, but I hit her. I buckled her into her seat and I sat outside my car and I cried. Man did I cry so hard.

While most people will read that and think, “Good, she deserved a pop for that!” I am still feeling guilt because of it. It broke me. I was spanked as a child and I grew to fear those spanked me. I never felt respect for them, I never felt that I learned anything, I grew to be cautious of them; if I stepped out of line or said the wrong thing I could get hit. I never wanted that for my child but there I was, hitting her in a parking lot.

Something needed to change after that. I started applying my “gentle life” techniques to my parenting and it was like an instant change in our daughter. She started listening more, she was more curious about life and was much more excited to show me things that she found in her world, we were interacting on a different level and it was incredible, I don’t even really know how to describe it.

I’ve shared that I’m a SAHM/childcare provider, my husband works long hours and, as a result, isn’t around much so it took a long time for our daughter to get used to him. For the first year and a half of her life he was active duty but then after he got out of the USMC he took another government job with equally as long hours, often getting OT on the weekends. Charlotte wouldn’t go to him much, she was wary of him because he has a strong presence; a stone face, doesn’t show much emotion, strong voice, and loud when worked up about something. He was raised in that traditional, strict home as well and then joined the Marine Corps. where emotion was pretty much banned, so, in a nutshell, the man is far from Mr. Rogers lol.

I’ll never forget the day that he and I reached our breaking point in parenting. While I had started to filter gentleness into my style, he remained the strict one. We were packing our apartment to move to our first house and our stress levels were much higher than usual; Charlotte happened to touch something that my husband didn’t want her to and instead of saying, “Lets not touch that, we could get hurt,” he shouted, “NO!!” and smacked her hand and snatched up the case she had touched. Instantly she came screaming to me, red, puffy cheeks and eyes, shouting, “Daddy scare me!” He heard it. As I hugged her and calmly said, “Daddy didn’t want you to get hurt,” she just cried and wailed, “No, daddy scare me!” He acted preoccupied but I could see that her words were hurting him.

That moment caused a fight between my husband and I (and in our five years together I can count our fights on one hand). I described his actions as listening to a TV when the volume is too high: you can hear the noise but the words aren’t clear. That’s what was happening with our toddler, a tiny human who was still learning how things work – she was exploring and instead of learning why not to do something, she was basically told to fear it because she couldn’t understand the message.

Since that day I’ve noticed an incredible change in my husband. He is so much more patient with our daughter, he takes the time to show her how things work and explain why we do things. He even invites her into the garage (his personal sanctuary) so they can work on his project truck together. We had snow a few months ago and he went outside and built a snowman with her. He encouraged her walk along side him while he put some chemicals on the lawn last weekend. She gets so excited when she wakes up and realizes that he’s still in bed and not at work, because it means she gets to hang out with him.

I know that it made him sad that our daughter was scared of him for so long, his family would comment on it, he even made a remark to a friend of ours at a Fourth of July BBQ that our daughter would never want him to play with her the way our friend’s son was playing with her husband. I’m so glad to say that in under a year that has changed all because of his new gentle approach to parenting.

We are often criticized for our choice to not spank or yell, because we choose not to isolate our daughter in time-out, that we still hug her when she’s sad or hurt or scared, but to those people I say, “Oh well.” We are raising a child who is confident in her choices, who knows that it’s okay to be wrong from time to time, a child who isn’t afraid of an accident.

I found this quote recently and I quite like it:

“When a child hits a child, we call it aggression.
When a child hits an adult, we call it hostility.
When an adult hits an adult, we call it assault.
When an adult hits a child, we call it discipline.”
– Haim G. Ginott

I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject. Were you spanked as a child? How do you feel about it? Do you spank as a parent? Have you asked your child what they think about being hit? I hope y’all have a great weekend! ❤

I am awful at staying up to date with this, I know I keep saying I’ll get better and I’m so sorry I haven’t. I do keep little sticky notes around my laptop, though, with ideas of what to write about. If you have any topics you want me to discuss leave a comment and I’ll do it 😀

Soooo ghosts. The paranormal world is one of those almost taboo subjects that people like to hear the stories, especially if they’re real-life experiences, but then don’t want to believe them. I’m one of those in-the-middle people; I’ve experienced things that are completely unexplainable despite me trying to debunk them or find solid reasoning that they couldn’t be paranormal. I’ve mentioned before (at least I think I have) that I’m atheist so the idea of believing in ghosts and spirits but not believing in God, Satan, angels, demons, etc. is odd. I will say this, despite my disbelief in God and His posse, when I used sage to smudge our new house I also carried a rosary and an amethyst with me.

That’s another thing, I like stones and crystals! Not only are they pretty, but I love their significance and healing powers. Even if it’s all in my head, it doesn’t hurt to like them. That’s not really related to this entry, I guess, so I digress and will get back to the topic 😉

Growing up I always loved when my mom would tell me scary stories; she’d tell me some of the experiences that our family or her friends have had in regards to ghosts or paranormal and I would listen, totally mesmerized. As I grew up, though, and started to gain a better understanding of life and all of that good stuff I believed it less and less, mainly because it didn’t make sense; there wasn’t a solid reason or evidence that ghosts were here so I just didn’t didn’t believe.

However I have had a few things happen with me and now with my daughter (who just turned three and doesn’t even understand what ghosts are) so I thought I’d share those:

Happening #1 – Part One:I’m from western NY and we had a serial killer in the 70s (Arthur Shawcross a.k.a. The Genesee River Killer) who targeted prostitutes. He dumped their bodies in various spots, but two of the bodies he dumped in the same park (Turning Point Park). As a junior in high school a few friends and I went down there around 11:30 pm. The way the park is laid out (the part where he dumped the bodies) is like a giant oval on it’s side. The parking lot was about smack dab in the bottom part of the oval and the path to the left lead to a big opening (roughly 1100 sq. ft.) and then the path continued down hill to the Genesee River. Reports have it that he dumped one decapitated body in the water and the second he threw in the woods just past this giant opening before the path continued down hill.

Well I was a smoker at the time and as we were walking I had a cigarette in my right hand (imagine how one holds a cigarette) and on the palm of my hand and in between my fingers my hand got tingly, like it had fallen asleep. I shook it off and didn’t pay any attention to it, just tossed out my cigarette. We got to the giant opening and something literally stopped me. I was the only girl in the group and my friend Bob* (names changed for privacy) was at the front of the line holding the video camera that had a light on it. I spoke up saying, “Guys, I don’t feel comfortable..something isn’t right!” and they all stopped and came around me trying to calm me down but Bob had the camera light right on my face and it was blinding, so I told him to turn the camera away. We talked for a few minutes but I just couldn’t (phsycially) move any further forward and so we turned around and called it a night. A few days later Bob called me and said that I had to get to his house – I wouldn’t believe what was on the video. So my boyfriend at the time (who was with us that night) and I went to Jim’s and we crowded around his TV. You could hear us talking and joking and you could see a little bit of my cigarette smoke floating in front of the camera. Then you hear me say, “Guys, hold on..” and a blue orb floated past the camera screen (totally plausible that it was dust, but wait for Part Two) and went into the woods to the right and then you could see this gray transluscent mist come walking up the hill (from the river) and it stopped at the top of the hill facing us (none of us saw it because the camera was facing that way while everybody talked to me). That’s when you could hear Bob say, “Okay, let’s just leave.” and he closed up the camera and we left.

Happening #1 – Part Two:
So now it’s 2006 (four years after part one) and some new friends and I go down to Turning Point Park to walk the whole thing since it was afternoon. I had just gotten a brand new digital camera, charged up the battery and was excited to test it out. My friend Tom* (names changed for privacy) was the only smoker in the group and in the one picture where he had a cigarette I was about 50 feet away testing out the zoom feature.

(This picture below is without the zoom)

(The picture below is with the zoom)

These two pictures are taken at the bottom of the hill (the water is the Genesee River) and this pier that they’re on is where one of the bodies was found. As you can tell it was getting dark so we started back up the path and I kept feeling like something was following us. I kept checking but nothing was there. Finally my friend suggested taking a picture so I did:

(The picture below is of the path behind us – note: the blue orb was the same one we saw on Bob’s video camera four years earlier)

We got to that giant opening and both my friend Marie* and myself felt really weird. I kept feeling tinglies on my body (remember from part one I said it felt like my hand fell asleep?) and Marie said her head was pounding, she couldn’t think straight. We stopped (Tom was going towards the car, not with us at this point). I kept hearing something in the woods and I took a picture:

(Below is a picture of the woods where the blue orb disappeared to in part one)

At the same exact moment both of our cell phones shut off, Marie’s watch stopped, and my camera flashed once and then completely died.

(Below is the last picture that was captured by my now-dead camera)

Marie and I ran to the car and locked the doors and sped off. At the end of the street our phones turned on, her watch started and my camera turned back on. I haven’t gone back to Turning Point Park since this happened.

Happening #2:
This one happened in a dream so I don’t know if it counts in the way that other ghost stories do but I think it is really special.

When I was a senior in high school one of my older friends (who had graduated and joined the Army) had commit suicide at the park right up the street from my house. His little brother found him. It took everything in me to go to the wake and I was just so drained that I couldn’t get the energy to go to the funeral, so I stayed in bed and just cried.

About a week later I was feeling so guilty that I missed the funeral that it was just eating at me. I was becoming physically ill because I felt so selfish that I couldn’t just go say goodbye. Well one night I went to sleep and I had this dream that I was walking through the halls of my school and Steve (my friend that died) was in the back corner (where a lot of us hung out) and he was just playing hackey sack. I smiled and waved and went to class. In class an announcement came on over the PA and said we were to all meet in the bleachers on the football field (Steve played football). I walked out there and everybody was already there so I found a spot all alone in the bleachers and looked down at the field and there was a casket with the flag draped over it. I couldn’t stop staring at it and then Steve opened up the casket and climbed out, walked up the bleachers and kneeled down in front of me and said, “It’s okay…I’m okay now…you can let go.”

It was right then that I woke up and I instantly felt lighter and like I could breathe easier. I went to the cemetery that morning and I sat down on the still fresh grave and I told Steve my dream. When I got done I told him that I’m sorry I didn’t go to his funeral, that I love him and just didn’t want to say goodbye. Right then a cardinal came and landed on the headstone and sang his little song and flew away. Something just told me that everything was okay.

Happening #3:There was an old house in my hometown that everybody used to say was haunted and that at midnight it’d glow green – I never witnessed that – but I was fascinated by the house because it was a huge and beautiful and it didn’t fit in with the other houses in the area…or the whole town for that matter. Well, anybody from that area can tell you that the Easter of 2004 was so hot that people were already swimming at the beach! Mike* (names changed for privacy), my bf at the time and the same guy who was with me at Turning Point Park, and I decided to go for a walk and as were nearing this house, we decided to walk around the property since it was vacant (and had been for years).

We started with the barn (to the left of the house) and as we were walking on the far left side of it we could hear and smell horses. We could hear them kicking in their stalls and neighing. Around the far back side of the barn there was a balcony of sorts but the wood looked all burned and charred. At the top of the balcony there was a set of french doors that had stained glass windows and the doors themselves were fine – they even looked new – but the wood around the doors was completely burned up like the rest of the balcony wood.

On we went. Behind the barn just to the left (if you’re looking at the front of the house the structure is to the right of the barn, behind the main house) there was a smaller house (it has since been torn down but I learned that it was the servant’s quarters) and we were able to look in the windows. There was still furniture in there and there was a small kitchen table with glasses and plates still on it like somebody was about to set the table. There was one door off the kitchen that looked to be a bedroom (I could see the corner of a bed). We switched windows and were looking the other end of this house now and I could see a middle door (kind of separating the kitchen and living room) that was a bathroom; my eyes suddenly caught a rocking chair moving and the third door (at the far end of the living room) slammed shut. We jumped back from the window and kept walking.

We approached the main house and started in the back. There was a set of concrete stairs that let to nothing…literally just a wall. Then there was a a big ditch that lead to the basement of the house – kind of like there was supposed to be cellar doors there and they just weren’t anymore. There was a piece of wood that was placed inside the house and attempted to board up the opening to the basement, but it didn’t cover the whole space (so there was a triangular opening to the basement). As we walked by that there was a huge blast of cold air..so cold both Mike and I saw our breath (keep in mind, it was at least 90 outside that day). We kept walking by it trying to feel the cold again, Mike even climbed down the slope and put his arm inside the building and the cold was just not there. So we walked on to the east side of the house (in the picture it’s the right awning) and as we approached the concrete slab (all the white fencing was not there) we could hear kids laughing followed by a door closing. We walked on towards the front of the house and near the front left window we got a really strong smell of bourbon. It was so strong we actually looked in the bushes to see if a bum had left a bottle there!

Now, I was talking to a town hall member about this experience and he told me that in the mid-1900s a man lived there with his family but suspected that his wife was having an affair and so he killed her along with his kids. He remarried and his new wife loved horses so he bought her two horses for the barn and things were good. Then he suspected her of cheating, too, and locked her and the horses in the barn before setting it on fire. That front, left window was rumored to be his study where he’d go to drink and reportedly took his own life there. The servants didn’t know what to do and didn’t want to be accused so they fled. I have tried researching this story and can’t find anything to validate it, all I could find is that it was a working farm and the owner owned a local coal company and the Rochester-Buffalo-Pittsburg Railroad. The property is now offices and for sale.
(The below picture is a semi-recent picture of the house)

Happening #4:
We recently bought a house and where we moved to is about 30 minutes from major stores; a trip to Wal-Mart is about a half hour and through farm country. One day after leaving WM my daughter (who was two and a half at the time) started screaming, “Stop! He look at me!” and seemed truly upset. Naturally I pulled over and jumped out of the car to search the back and there was nothing, I finally concluded that she just saw her distorted reflection in the shiny handles and that was that. She acted this way in the car for a few weeks, but it was lessening. Finally one day we went out to the car and I opened the door and she goes, “Hi! I miss you!” and chatted with nothing during all of our errands. We got to the grocery store and she pointed at the side of the car that originally scared her and said, “Okay, I be back. You wait here!” That’s when I started getting curious so I took pictures of the car, the inside, outside, each seat, and I posted them in and paranormal group I’m part of. I told them no details, nothing about my daughter’s behavior, just the photos. One woman, who is a an empath and can connect with spirits, responded and said that my daughter has the gift (now mind you I told her no details, not even that I have a daughter) and that our area is rich with history and it appears I picked up hitchhikers, of sort, in my travels, that we had an older woman and her grandson in the car and they were using our vehicle as their portal to get where they needed to go. She suggested driving around the area to see if it made a difference so we did that one day and after about 20 minutes I heard Charlotte say, “Bye! I miss you!” and she hasn’t mentioned it since!!

Happening 5:
I was at the jewelry store here in town and the owner had her dog there so Charlotte kept petting the dog but kept looking in the back room asking about the other dog, the big white one. I didn’t pay much attention to it and told her that the other dog was back there sleeping and she had to stay out here because the back room was only for employees. As we were paying I asked the owner about her other dog in the back and she said she doesn’t have one back there, that the little French Bulldog was the only one in the store. I looked at her confused and asked about the big white dog that Charlotte was talking about and she told me that her white lab died there in May.

Happening 6:
I had just got done donating blood and afterwards was strapping Charlotte into her carseat. She was watching me more than usual and then suddenly put her hand on my cheek and said, “God will bless you mama.” Keep in mind, I’m atheist so I’m not discussing God or blessings with her, I work from home so she’s with me all the time so I know she’s not hearing that from other people, so it was a very bizarre thing for her to say. I asked her to repeat what she said and she smiled and said, “You be blessed mama,” and then went back to playing with her toy. Odd but I shrugged it off. So recently, about a month and a half after the post-blood donation thing, Charlotte was playing and kept talking about Sophie. Sophie this and Sophie that, Sophie loves God, we be blessed, etc. Weird things! She doesn’t like watching “Princess Sofia” so I knew it wasn’t that (and I asked if her if that’s what she was saying) but, again, I shrugged it off and chalked it up to toddler imagination.

I was on the phone with my mom just a couple days ago (we’re states away) and she was telling me about the psychic fair that she and a friend went to; they go regularly so it’s not out of character for her. She had been really stressed out about some work and family stuff so she felt like that stress was blocking her energies, but one of the readers told her that a motherly figure was visiting but since my mom’s mom and her mother-in-law are both alive she felt like it wasn’t accurate and went about the fair.

As my mom was telling me about her day it reminded me of Charlotte talking about Sophie, so I mentioned how I’d love to bring her to one because of it. I asked her if we had anybody in our family tree named Sophie and she got really quiet for a few seconds and asked, “Why do you ask? That’s a really strange question…” so I told her about Charlotte mentioning Sophie and the things she said about her, to my surprise my mom started crying! She then told me that her grandma, my great grandma, Charlotte’s great great grandma, was named Sophie and she was an a spunky Catholic woman who went to church every day and said the rosary every night, she always used to tell my mom that she’d be blessed! So the psychic was right – a maternal figure was visiting, she was just visiting my daughter!
So that’s that. All of these things I can’t really explain but are interesting, at least to me. Do you have any experiences that are paranormal or unexplainable? If so, I’d love to hear them!

Hey all! I’m so sorry it’s been almost three whole weeks since I last wrote! I’ve had a busy three weeks, though. I do in-home childcare and had to say farewell to the family I’ve been working for for the past two years because we bought a house an hour away, so I had that emotional goodbye, the hectic process of putting our lives into boxes, then moving and unpacking to start our new life! Let me just say that I LOVE the pride banner at the top of the WordPress page…kudos to WP!

Anyway, since it’s summer I feel the need to vent about a major gripe/insecurity of mine – beaches. I hate beaches! There. I said it. I know, I’m probably a terrible person and have you scratching your head, but whatever. It is what it is.

I hate the sand and I hate that sand finds a way into every crevice possible and sticks to you even after a shower..I hate it. I hate laying in the sand because, well, it’s sand, and I sweat. Laying there, doing nothing, I sweat. I don’t like sweating when I’m doing nothing. I like it even less when it results in sand sticking to me.

I don’t like swimming either. Beaches are always over-crowded and people fight for the water and I inevitably get splashed in the face (which I hate)..it’s just not fun. Plus, things live in the water. In our area there’s tons of jellyfish, sharks, fish with teeth…no thanks. I’ll stick to a bathtub or a pool.

Then there’s bathing suits. I hate bathing suits. Why? Because I’m fat. I know I know, I should love my body and really show off body positivity for my daughter, but the fact of the matter is I just hate my body. And yes, I am aware of how I can lose weight (this is not an invitation for you to start trying to sell me on your ItWorks shit or anything of the like) and I’m working on it, but until that happens I am going to continue being self-conscious. I see some women my size and larger wearing two-pieces and I give them so much credit because I don’t even like wearing my dress-style suit.

Next, I’m a mom (duh), so even if I did like the beach I think it’d still be unenjoyable for the simple fact of, well, I have a toddler. My daughter hates sand as much as I do, actually more because she screams bloody murder when it’s on her. So going in the water (which she loves) is awful because then we have to walk back through the sand and it sticks to her and she thinks it’s attacking her..oh gosh..it’s just a sight to see. Then you have to bring adequate food and beverages to appease a toddler, plus toys, shade, her special blanket, her pillow (because it’s impossible to take a nap without her pillow) because she’d be in the sun and the sun makes her sleepy…by the time I’d have everything we need for the trip people would think we were moving to the dang beach!

And please, don’t talk to me about finding a sitter. If you met my toddler you’d understand why that just won’t happen and then I’d just spend my hot, sticky, sandy time worrying about her.

At the end of the day I’d be so grumpy because I was in the sun (and while I don’t tan my skin just hurts like I have a burn without the redness), I’d be hot, sticky, and covered in sand, I’d have a crabby toddler, and then I’d worry that some dickhead with a camera phone spent their time taking unflattering pictures of me to post online so they could make fun of me. It’s just not worth it. Give me the AC and sunless tanner and I’m happy.

I have few friends and the one closest (in proximity) to me loves the beach. She could spend all day, every day at the beach. She’s also not a mom. I can tell she gets frustrated that I won’t go with her but I just won’t budge. Plus, we live in a beachy area (we’re about two hours from VA Beach) so there’d be so much traffic getting there…it’d really require a whole plan of attack to go there even for a day. And she’d have to ride in my car because of the car seat and trunk space (her little sports car just would not suffice) and I just don’t think that she can handle a two hour drive (if there’s literally no traffic) singing “Wheels on the Bus” and “Itsy Bitsy Spider” and then -x- amount of hours of the aforementioned struggles.

Nope. I’m just not the person to ask to tag along to the beach.

Okay well now that I’ve got that off my chest, I have a new piece of furniture that I want to sand down and paint so I’m off to do that. I’ll write soon, though, I promise.

Hey hey hey! I was told not to do a post like this because it’s so controversial and it would immediately turn people away from wanting to read my blog at all and make them hate me. Extreme much? As much as I appreciate you reading my blog, I do it for me so if you don’t like this one I’m sorry, but feel free to skip it 🙂

I’m going to talk about “bad moms.” In mommy world it seems like this giant battle where we’re all against each other instead of trying to help each other. Silly me…I always thought it was the latter. I quickly found out that I was doing things wrong from the start. I mentioned in another post that I delivered in a military hospital, so all of my prenatal care was done in the same setting. I didn’t do any prenatal classes (like Lamaze) or anything, I just read a lot of books, because the closest base I could do them at was 90 minutes away. Strike one. Then, I was induced instead of going into labor naturally. Strike two. That one, though, they kept insisting I had gestational diabetes even though I passed all of my blood tests (I even had a diabetic kit that I used to test at home and still passed! Except that one time I binged on ice cream and pretzels…), but they kept telling me my baby was pushing nine pounds and if I went the full 40 weeks she’d absolutely be over ten. So they induced me at 39 weeks and 1 day. My baby was born at 7 lbs. 10 oz. Anyway..that was strike two. Then after 27 hours of labor – yes, 27 HOURS OF LABOR with two epidurals that DID NOT WORK, I had an emergency c-section. It doesn’t matter that both my and my daughter’s BPs were dropping and I was starting to black out, the fact that I had a c-section at all is strike three. So, by the time my daughter was born I already had three strikes against me!

Lets not forget that I used formula (in my defense I tried breast feeding, and after three months was still only producing an ounce each time – which my daughter did get, turns out my prolactin levels were all sorts of messed up), I co-slept, I did baby-wearing, attachment parenting, I used jarred food, I do not like (actually, I HATE) the cry-it-out method (oh, excuse me, that’s called “ferberizing”), I use disposable diapers. So that’s more strikes against me.

I find it funny that I actually felt the need to defend myself for having used formula. That’s what other moms do to you!!!!

I remember one time I was returning a ton of breastfeeding stuff to Babies R Us, all of it was unopened and I had the receipts for it, but the cashier looked at me then at my daughter and went on to tell me, “You know..breast is best. It’s much healthier for babies. It makes them live longer.” I was so taken aback and upset about her comment that I made up a terrible lie to make her feel even guiltier about why I was returning this stuff. I think my awful lie is excusable since she just butted into my business like it was hers. Another time I was at Food Lion buying groceries and a lady commented on the shape of C’s head, “Oh surely she was a c-section baby..her head is just so round!” What in the world makes people think they can talk to you about this stuff?! I looked at her and responded with, “Well actually, after about 18 hours of labor she descended, ready to come out, but got stuck because she twisted her body. The lightening crotch I experienced during pregnancy was nothing compared to feeling a human get stuck in the birth canal! Since she was stuck for so long she had this horrible cone head, but the doctors were able to help mold it to the correct shape.” She turned so white. But really, if she wanted to get in my business I’d share the juicy details that even I don’t like thinking about just to make her uncomfortable. I know…mature.

I’m a SAHM, too, so that’s another strike. However, if I was a working mom that’d be a strike so there’s really no winning on that topic. I tried to join a few mom groups in the area because I really didn’t have any friends here (I don’t know if I mentioned it before but we moved to Virginia for my husband’s duty station so I didn’t know many, hardly any, people here) and I wanted to be able to socialize C as well as myself. Well I tried one that was a walking group through a historical part of town – I figured moms, exercise, scenery..it’d be great! No. It was not great. I was glared at because I didn’t have a jogging stroller and then they left me in the dust because apparently “walking group” means “steady jogging group” and I wasn’t even fully healed yet and I just don’t run. So after a few times doing that I just gave up. The moms didn’t even bother greeting me anymore when I showed up so it was clear I wasn’t welcome in their clique. Then I tried another group in the area and they walk around the mall on Fridays then let the kids play in the play area, so I figured that’d be a safe bet, right? No. The first one I went to they barely spoke to me gossiped amongst themselves. Whatever, I was new. The next week I came and they all were trash-talking another mom who wasn’t there and then looked at me and very dramatically said, “Oh, don’t think we’re always like this..but this woman!” and went on to talk more. Real classy, huh? The final straw was when I invited a fellow mom I had met a few weeks before so that I’d at least have somebody to talk to when I walked. This was frowned upon so much by the other moms and I was told, “That’s not allowed at all, you have to get permission to invite her!” so I said fuck it and we walked on our own, I never returned to another group with them again. I tried a third group and they required I join this site where I pay a membership fee (only $20 annually) and then I had to host two playgroups each month, including one weekend day, and they got together 2-3 times each week. I lived in a two bedroom apartment, there was no way I was hosting that much, especially on a weekend when it was my only time for my family to get together. So that didn’t work.

Now that my daughter is two I get criticized because she’s not baptized, I don’t think that we’re going to do a preschool (actually, I’m near certain that we just won’t), I still haven’t left her with anybody, I won’t pierce her ears until she asks me to and is old enough to clean them herself, I still don’t let her cry-it-out, we still co-sleep, I just do what works for her and for myself and, really, that’s all any mom should do.

Unless your child is in harm’s way, I don’t care how you parent. If you want to breastfeed in my living room, do it. If you want/need to work, go for it. I’ll offer to watch your child. If you need to vent about how long your child has been crying and you haven’t showered in three days and there’s dirty dishes in the sink and two-day-old laundry in the washer and you’re just so tired…go for it. I get it. I can relate. I am here for you.

We’re parents. We need to stick together. We need to help each other out. Who the hell cares how you’re parenting? If they don’t care for your child 24/7 then fuck their opinion. You do what works for you and for your family.

I will not judge you for how you parent. Unless you use your car seat wrong. In that case I’ll offer to help you fix it, give you ways on how to improve the situation, but if you don’t then you’re failing your child. Car seat safety is so important.

Other than that..you do you, boo. And have fun because being a parent is so amazing and so rewarding 🙂 ❤

I’m not sure if it’s common to write as often as I am, especially since this is my second post just today, but it’s my blog so I suppose I can do what I want. Plus, if things are funny or interesting you’re bound to come back and read more, right?

Well here’s a funny thing that my daughter does. I have this little pink skin tag that’s been on my chest for as long as I can remember. It’s over near my left arm below my pit but before my boob – kind of where the point of a bra sits. Well, C is so mesmerized by it! When she’s flustered or upset she searches for it and will just flick it around, when she’s tired she’ll pull my shirt away from that spot and lay on it lol. The other day I was watching my friend’s daughter (who just shy of one) and man was C jealous that baby M was near my skin tag lol. I had to switch arms so that C could access my tag and baby M wasn’t near it 😛

I have another small skin tag on the back of my neck and she has no interest in that. However, as I’m typing this I remember one that my biological father has on his back; his skin tag is about the same size, shape, color…it’s just smack dab in the middle of his back on his spine. I remember being younger and flicking it around when he was shirtless (and if you met my father you’d know that was quite often…I should write about him…man that’d be cathartic!). I always looked at it as something that made my dad HIM. I wonder if that’s how C looks at me and my little skin tag.

Honestly, growing up, it always made me self-conscious because I didn’t want people thinking I had a third nipple (like Chandler and his nubbin…anybody? Friends? haha) but now that I am a mom, this little quirk really drives home that my daughter loves all of me, even the little things I think are flaws.